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The Centre for Public Scrutiny's Ed Hammond discusses the findings of their new report 'the Change Game', which finds that non-Cabinet councillors are being frozen out of the debate around council transformation and identifies ways for them to play a greater role in shaping these plans.

This election briefing covers essential issues for local authorities during the pre-election period: the implications of the publicity code, the position of elected members, use of premises by candidates, and maximising voter registration.

This briefing summarises recent research into sexism in local government and uses practical examples from the 2014 Times 50 Best Employers for Women to explore practical measures councils can take to encourage more women to become councillors and enter senior management.

With local elections almost upon us it’s hard not to be drawn into speculation about the results. Rather than offering predictive hostages to fortune, however, we think it’s more helpful to try and draw out some of the key questions into which these elections might give us insight 1)…

Cllr Shelagh Marshall is the Older People’s champion for North Yorks County Council. She chairs The Age Action Alliance, Isolation and Loneliness Working Group. We hear from Shelagh about the important role local authorities can play in combating loneliness. Has your council got loneliness as a priority in its Health and…

This briefing focuses on the constraints on local authority publicity during election periods. It discusses the impact of the rules on elected members and the capacity and necessity for leadership in councils to tackle discriminatory election campaigns.

This briefing reports on the government’s response to the recent Select Committee inquiry on the role that councillors play in their communities.Key recommendations included the possibility of councils transferring the whole responsibility for setting allowances to independent local bodies, and a review of ways that employers can be encouraged to…